STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 131 



ply. Through its fastnesses rush the waters upon 

 which depend the irrigation of many thousands of 

 square miles of otherwise arid land. In its fast- 

 nesses are water-power resources of incalculable 

 value to the future growth and prosperity of many 

 states which have little or no coal, and, indirectly, of 

 the whole nation. Upon thousands of square miles 

 of grass lands dotted with forests and thousands of 

 square miles of forest lands dotted with meadows, 

 are grazing facilities for several millions of cattle 

 and sheep. Through thousands of shafts sunk into 

 the solid rock are mined millions of tons of metal. 

 Hundreds of thousands of wild animals must be 

 conserved and administered as game. Eighteen 

 million pleasure seekers must be looked after and 

 many of them provided with camp grounds. 



Because our remaining forest resources are 

 mere remnants of dissipated resources once a hun- 

 dred times as great, and because they are the hope 

 of a fast growing population already well exceeding 

 a hundred millions, their conservation and adminis- 

 tration is an exacting work of scientific skill. Each 

 kind of resource must be developed to its utmost 

 without injury to any other kind. Grazing and min- 

 ing must not retard forestry, nor irrigation water 

 power. Nor must any class or group of interests 

 using the forests profit unduly at the expense of 

 other classes or groups, or of individuals. 



In 1905 Secretary of Agriculture James Wil- 

 son, in a letter to the Chief of the Forest Service, 



